Digital audio and video capabilities can be incorporated into a wide range of devices, including digital televisions, digital direct broadcast systems, wireless broadcast systems, personal digital assistants (PDAs), laptop or desktop computers, digital cameras, digital recording devices, digital media players, video gaming devices, video game consoles, cellular or satellite radio telephones, video teleconferencing devices, and the like.
Media data, such as audio and video data, may be compressed for transport. Compression generally includes encoding of the media data. After media data has been encoded, the video data may be packetized for transmission or storage. The media data may be assembled into a media file conforming to any of a variety of standards, such as the International Organization for Standardization Base Media File Format and (ISO BMFF) extensions thereof, such as AVC.
Various techniques may be used to transport media data via a computer network. For example, media data may be delivered via a broadcast protocol or a unicast protocol. In a broadcast protocol, a server device sends media data to a plurality of subscribing client devices. In a unicast protocol, a client device requests media data from a server device, and the server device delivers the media data in response to the request.